Behind wooden and chain-linked fencing in South Tacoma, 60 brightly painted tiny homes stand in neat rows on a gravel lot.
This is the home of Kingfisher Village, which opened at the end of July. It is the newest tiny home community that the nonprofit, Low Income Housing Institute, has established in the city.
“ This is probably one of the best sites that we put together just because the more you do it, the better you get at it,” said John Brown, a program manager for LIHI.
Within the village, there are eight bathrooms with showers, a kitchen, shared washers and dryers, case management, a resource center and staff on site 24/7. Six of the 60 units are ADA-compliant.
Kingfisher is specifically set up for adults who have been living in encampments on state and public rights of way. That includes places like highways, on-ramps and under bridges. When these encampments are cleared — and when there’s space — Brown said people will be given the chance to move into one of the houses.
Three years ago, Washington state started a program to clear encampments from state and public rights of way, the Right of Way Safety Initiative. It is now called the Encampment Resolution Program and it centers on King, Pierce, Thurston, Snohomish and Spokane counties.
As of June 2025, according to data from the Washington State Department of Commerce, there are a total of 82 rights of way sites across these counties that the state is working on. Eighty of these have been cleared, while two are still active.
From these sites, 1,758 people have accepted housing. The department reported that 52% of people who accepted shelter or housing have remained stable and indoors.
Brown said there is no limit to how long people can stay in the tiny homes at Kingfisher, as long as they follow the site’s code of conduct. That includes signing in and out when leaving, no alcohol or drug use and, at this time, no visitors.
There is no curfew for residents. People can also bring pets, and couples are allowed to stay in a tiny home together.
“ It's just really a place for individuals to come that are experiencing homelessness to get help, assistance and just to get their feet back on the ground,” Brown said.
When people first move into the village, case managers help make sure they have documents needed to eventually get permanent housing, such as an ID and a Social Security card. Then, case managers help people address medical issues or other barriers that have kept them out of housing in the past.
Joe Perva, who works as a senior shelter operations manager for the Low Income Housing Institute, said main priorities for people living in encampments are focused on basic necessities. Other concerns, such as accessing mental health services and getting documentation, get put on the back burner. Perva said case managers help residents address these barriers.
Different organizations have been providing food to the village, and a transport van can take clients to medical appointments. Residents are able to go to stay in in-patient substance abuse treatment programs and then return to their tiny home.
“Our main goal is to remove every barrier to help individuals get to a place where they're more comfortable with, again, obtaining a job, getting their health where it needs to be,” Brown said. “Then, the goal is to move them into permanent housing.”
The Low Income Housing Institute plans to turn the site into affordable housing one day. That’s still years away, though.
According to the Low Income Housing Institute, it cost the nonprofit $1.55 million to acquire the land, then another $1.5 million to set up the village. Operating the village costs $1.2 million per year.
The Low Income Housing Institute has multiple tiny-home communities within Pierce County. Since January 2018, 1,138 people who were living in these homes have left and of those, 49% have gone into what LIHI calls a positive destination. That means either permanent housing, transitional housing, treatment centers or living with friends or family.
Already, 28 of the homes in Kingfisher are occupied. LIHI expects to move 18 more individuals into the village this week.
“We're just trying to do our part, but we definitely know that — we're excited about it — but there's a lot of work that still needs to be done,” Brown said.
